Got some work done on this build today but Im not sure what it means.

So all this time Ive been struggling with it, I bought some Corsair XMS PC3200 for it (2x 256Mb) and cleaned it up.
The CPU runs cool, the GPU (Tyan G9600 Pro) seems to run ok in it, but I have no real way to test that right now.

But I have noticed that when I install Win98 the scheduled tasks app doesnt run on install, no matter how I install it, from a retail CD, or from a Select account CD.

But then I turned to installing XP to test some things out and it wasnt until I went into the BIOS is hit load fail safe defaults that XP would install.
It always gave me some kind of error on install, but when I run the CPU as a 1100MHz with a "100MHz" bus that it allows XP to install.

I did the same with Win98, with the fail safe defaults in the BIOS loaded, and it installs fine and the scheduled tasks app runs on first boot.
I changed nothing in the BIOS, I loaded up the drivers for the devices present and installed Rainbow Six Rogue Spear and it worked. I played the first mission without any problems.

I went into the BIOS and changed the CPU to 200, so it runs an an Athlon XP 3200+ and now the game wont run, it errors out on me every time.
Thats the only setting I changed in the BIOS.

That was with the onboard sound drivers loaded, but not with the installer, it was from the device manager. The sound worked fine too until I changed the CPU settings.

Anybody have any ideas?

That's very interesting.

It reminds me of some fun I had with a 3200+ chip I bought earlier this year. It turned out to be a fake! There were loads of these floating around back in the day apparently. By altering the bridges on the chip it's quite easy to make it think it's something else, and sometimes they even run ok like that (i.e. at a faster speed). With a good reproduction or even original label on the chip it can tricky to spot the fakes from the real ones.

I determined that the one I had was originally an AXMH2500FQQ4C (mobile Athlon XP-M 2500+ 133/266) but had 1 and 2 joined on L3, 2 and 3 cut on L5, and 2 joined on L12.

If you can share a close/macro photo of the chip and the bridges we might be able to determine if it is indeed a genuine 3200+, or as seems likely, it could be a fake and may struggle at the 'advertised' speeds you're trying to make it work at (which is causing the instability). If you have another Athlon XP you can test with I'd suggest that as well.

It could also be that the RAM is just not happy at the higher FSB but let's check out that CPU first...

I have a fake 2500 right here. No idea what actual model it is though, other than it was a XP-M originally.

What gives it away?

myne wrote on 2024-11-16, 05:14:

What gives it away?

In my case it was the bridges. I've attached what a genuine 3000+ looks like and the fake 3200+ I had. Look closely at how the bridges are cut and joined on the fake chip. Those are not factory! You can also look up how the bridges should be configured for the chip in question as well as what each bridge is responsible for, and what each combination of join and cut results in.

When I run the CPU as a 2500+ it runs perfectly. One of the smoothest Win98 PCs ever in fact.